Credit card hackers aren’t a rare breed these days. In addition, phone hackers, at times referred to as ‘phreakers’, are also on the rise with their telecom scams.
There is none bigger and better than 52-year old Noor Aziz Uddin which explains why he remained one of FBI’s most wanted cybercriminals for years. Noor Aziz, together with his accomplice Farhan Arshad, ran global telephone scams such as international revenue share fraud that set people back by thousands of dollars with unauthorized telephone systems used for long distance calls to premium rate lines.
Prior to the dawn on 14th of February, Chief cybersecurity officer Mir Mazhar Jabbar along with local police officers reached Noor Aziz’s house in one of Karachi’s residential suburbs. Noor Aziz had been on the run for over the last couple of years with reports of him traveling to multiple places including Italy, Malaysia, New Jersey, Pakistan and United Arab Emirates.
Despite his arrest by Interpol back in 2012, Noor Aziz managed to walk free due to lack of substantial evidence against him. FBI put a bounty worth of $50,000 on his head in the year that followed for any detail which could assist in his arrest again.
Earlier this year, FIA received a tip in form of a contact number which belonged to Noor Aziz, but the tip was directed to Mazhar Jabbar. All it took for Jabbar to land on Noor Aziz’s doorstep was to trace the GPS coordinates of the phone by contacting the wireless service provider.
It’s ironic that Noor Aziz’s fate was taking a turn for the worse courtesy of a phone that he had hacked himself. A phone that had helped him make millions by simply calling premium rate lines he owned was about to lead to his demise.
Jabbar directed the police force to commence the raid which lead to a rather effortless arrest of Noor Aziz who surrendered without any retaliation. Jabbar was thoroughly satisfied with such an accomplishment given the innumerable scams that might have been prevented with Noor Aziz in custody. Though, he acknowledges that there must be thousands others who are following in the footsteps of Noor Aziz.
Noor Aziz awaits trial in jail where a kingpin like him belongs. FBI refused to reveal any plans regarding extraditing him or further progress in their investigations. Noor Aziz’s accomplice, Arshad, claims that he had second thoughts about keeping the scheme going back in 2011. FBI confirmed that an email by Arshad shows that he literally pleaded Noor Aziz to ‘consider turning to a life of honesty’ and that Arshad wished to ‘return all his luxuries rather than to continue making money through their venture’.
It’s clear that Noor Aziz was so deep in the act that he felt absolutely no remorse or regret over his conduct. It makes one appreciate the efforts of Mir Mazhar Jabbar even more considering how contagious this lust for money could get. One would hope that this serves as a lesson for anyone out there even imagining to pursue a heinous crime such as this.
via IBTimes
